The Jewish Santa

Christmas is a weird time of year for me. On the one hand, I truly and honestly do not care about the holiday in the slightest. I’ve never been jealous of people who celebrate it. I don’t particularly care for the music and decorations. Really, the only thing I’m excited for is my half-birthday on the 26th.

On the other hand, it’s impossible to not care about Christmas. It’s everywhere. Every day, in order to walk from our office to the subway, I have to go by the big Macy’s store in Manhattan’s Herald Square. And it’s a scene. Christmas trees; Santas; music on repeat blasting onto the street. And people seem to be pretty into it. So into it, that some girl walked right into me yesterday, dropping her phone on the ground (I didn’t stick around to see if I broke it…oops!).

I enjoy seeing people enjoy Christmas, but it really doesn’t intimidate me that much. Hanukkah was nice and all, but I know that it will never compare to Christmas–and I’m cool with that. The Christians can keep their Christmas. We have Yom Kippur!

Last year, we made a video with comedian Ophira Eisenberg (that has since become a running series on our site–with a new video in the works) about her complicated relationship with Santa as a Jew growing up in Calgary. Though her story does not relate to me that much on a personal level, I think a lot of people do feel the same way as her.